Cappelletti’s Heisman speech still memorable

His Penn State teammates still marvel at the physical pounding John Cappelletti absorbed in 1973.

After each game, he sat in the training room with ice packs all over his body, an attempt to soothe the black and blue marks that covered his arms and legs.

He was usually hit multiple times before he fell to the ground, but he kept plowing for more yards on his way to 1,522.

Whenever a fleeting thought of self-pity crossed his mind, Cappelletti thought about his youngest brother, Joey, 11, who was back home in Upper Darby battling leukemia.

I was healthy, he said. Who was I to complain about anything? Maybe that was the difference for me, or for the team. Maybe that was the difference between winning and losing the Heisman race. It was a big component in the mix.

Cappelletti cemented his place in Penn State history when he won the Heisman Trophy. He gained a place in college football history when he delivered a moving acceptance speech, during which he dedicated the Heisman to his Joey.

He brought his family, Vice President Gerald Ford, Cardinal Fulton J. Sheen, Penn State coach Joe Paterno and nearly 1,700 attendees to tears with words that came from the heart. Earlier that day, he prepared some notes for his speech and wrote Joey at the bottom.

I didn’t know what I was going to say about Joey, Cappelletti said. I left that open, and that’s the way it came out. I’m glad it did. It was for his benefit. It gave him some recognition. It gave him that little bit of glamour. When you make a speech like that, you have to live with it the rest of your life.

Cappelletti spoke Tuesday night at the Hawk Mountain Boy Scout Council Leadership Dinner at the Sheraton Reading. Ironically, the man who gave one of the most memorable speeches in this country in the last 35 years is a reluctant speaker.

He’s been busy helping his wife raise their four sons in Southern California, where he works in financing for real estate developers. As Penn State’s first and only Heisman Trophy winner, he remains a popular figure in Pennsylvania.

I get envious of my family and of guys I know who live in this area when they say, Hey, we’re going up to Penn State this weekend,’ he said. I’m out there coaching a soccer game. That’s my life. That’s my kids. They deserve their time, too.

But now, with his youngest son a high school senior, he’s making a few more public appearances. Invariably, folks want to talk about his Heisman speech, his three straight 200-yard games and Penn State’s 1973 season, when the Nittany Lions finished 12-0 and No. 5 in the polls.

We had a really good football team, Cappelletti said. We had a lot of guys play at the professional level. We had the talent. We could have played with anybody in the country.

We had no control over it. We did the best we could. At least the season produced a Heisman Trophy winner, which I thought was kind of a reward for the team.

Joey kept the Heisman in his bedroom until he died in 1976. It sits on the mantle at Cappelletti’s home in Laguna Niguel, Calif., serving as a reminder of the bond among college football teammates and the bond between brothers.

Seeing the speech or watching the movie ( Something for Joey ) is still difficult, he said. That point of time was a little bit emotional. That’s a moment on a national level that he’s still part of. It’s good that it happened. At least I have that.